Life Writing. Introduction

What is Life-Writing?
Life-writing involves, and goes beyond, biography. It encompasses everything from the complete life to
the day-in-the-life, from the fictional to the factional. It embraces the lives of objects and institutions as
well as the lives of individuals, families and groups.
Life-writing includes biography, autobiography, memoirs, letters, diaries, journals, anthropological data,
oral testimony, eye-witness accounts, biopics, plays and musical performances, obituaries, scandal
sheets, and gossip columns, blogs, and social media such as Tweets and Instagram stories. It is not only a
literary or historical specialism, but is relevant across the arts and sciences, and can involve philosophers,
psychologists, sociologists, ethnographers and anthropologists.
But life-writing is more than just these kinds of written materials: it can be about love and loss; it can be
about family, friendship, marriage, children; it can show how history might be captured in an individual
life, or how an individual life is representative of its times. Life-writing has to do with the emotions, it has
to do with memory, and it has to do with a sense of identity. Life-writing is vital form of cultural
communication.
Writers and researchers are increasingly recognising how much of writing is life-writing, including poetry
and fiction. Life-writing is also an integral part of studies relating to the Holocaust, genocide, testimony
and confession, and gender and apartheid.
Abul Kalam Azad
Original name: Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin
Also called: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad or Maulana Azad
Abul Kalam Azad, (born November 11, 1888, Mecca [now in Saudi Arabia]—died February 22, 1958, New
Delhi, India), Islamic theologian who was one of the leaders of the Indian independence movement
against British rule in the first half of the 20th century. He was highly respected throughout his life as a
man of high moral integrity.
Azad was the son of an Indian Muslim scholar living in Mecca and his Arabic wife. The family moved back
to India (Calcutta [now Kolkata]) when he was young, and he received a traditional Islamic education at
home from his father and other Islamic scholars rather than at a (Islamic school). However, he was also
influenced by the emphasis that Indian educator Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan placed on getting a well-
rounded education, and he learned English without his father’s knowledge.
Chandigarh. Statuettes at the Rock Garden of Chandigarh a sculpture park in Chandigarh, India, also
known as Nek Chand's Rock Garden. Created by Nek Chand Saini an Indian self taught artist. visionary
artist, folk artist, environmental art
Azad became active in journalism when he was in his late teens, and in 1912 he began publishing a
weekly Urdu-language newspaper in Calcutta, Al-Hilal (“The Crescent”). The paper quickly became highly
influential in the Muslim community for its anti-British stance, notably for its criticism of Indian Muslims
who were loyal to the British. Al-Hilal was soon banned by British authorities, as was a second weekly
newspaper that he had started. By 1916 he had been banished to Ranchi (in present-day Jharkhand
state), where he remained until the beginning of 1920. Back in Calcutta, he joined the Indian National
Congress (Congress Party) and galvanized India’s Muslim community through an appeal to pan-Islamic
ideals. He was particularly active in the short-lived Khilafat movement (1920–24), which defended the
Ottoman sultan as the caliph (the head of the worldwide Muslim community) and even briefly enlisted
the support of Mahatma Gandhi.
Azad and Gandhi became close, and Azad was involved in Gandhi’s various civil disobedience
(satyagraha) campaigns, including the Salt March (1930). He was imprisoned several times between
1920 and 1945, including for his participation in the anti-British Quit India campaign during World War II.
Azad was president of the Congress Party in 1923 and again in 1940–46—though the party was largely
inactive during much of his second term, since nearly all of its leadership was in prison.
After the war Azad was one of the Indian leaders who negotiated for Indian independence with the
British. He tirelessly advocated for a single India that would embrace both Hindus and Muslims while
strongly opposing the partition of British India into independent India and Pakistan. He later blamed
both Congress Party leaders and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, for the ultimate division
of the subcontinent. After the two separate countries were established, he served as minister of
education in the Indian government of Jawaharlal Nehru from 1947 until his death. His autobiography,
India Wins Freedom, was published posthumously in 1959. In 1992, decades after his death, Azad was
awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award.

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What is Life-Writing?

Abul Kalam Azad

Original name: Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin

Also called: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad or Maulana Azad

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